Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Daniel Silva Biography:

At the very beginning of the sixties, a time when social revolution swept across America, Daniel Silva was born. Although it was in Michigan that he entered the world, Silva spent his childhood in sunny California. Child of a catholic family, he converted to Judaism as an adult. Something inside Silva always told him that he was destined to be a writer; clearly his intuitions were well founded. Nevertheless, it pleased Silva to pursue international relations as his major in graduate school. While in route to his degree, he was offered and accepted a job with United Press International. There he assisted in covering the Democratic National Convention which took place in San Francisco in 1984. The success he experienced in this position inspired Silva to completely abandon his educational goals and accept a full-time job with UPI, eventually serving in Washington on the foreign desk and later heading to the Middle East, where his role was that of a correspondent in the Persian Gulf and Cairo. While serving in this position, Silva met his soon-to-be wife, Jamie Gangel, who happened to be the national correspondent for NBC Today. The couple was married during the latter end of 1987 and returned to Washington together, where they resided.

Silva’s wife Jamie found work with CNN, becoming an executive producer for several of the network’s popular talk shows, including Reliable Sources and Crossfire. It was not until the couple had been married for about eight years, in 1995, that Silva revealed to his wife the fact that being a novelist had been his lifelong desire. At the time, he was also serving for CNN. She granted her husband her full support and he secretly started working on his first manuscript. Silva instantly became a bestselling author when his first attempt at a novel, The Unlikely Spy, hit store shelves in 1996, only a year after his work on the writing project had begun. Having met with a great measure of success on his first try, Silva gladly left CNN a year after his book had been published to focus full time on his writing career. From that moment on, each and every book that Silva wrote became international bestsellers and featured on the list of best-selling books at the New York Times. He has authored sixteen titles, about one book per year of his writing career, and his works have been translated to over 30 languages.

As a writer, Daniel Silva’s work all fall within the thriller genre, being packed with tales of intriguing espionage and detailed specifics on the topic of history, music, and art, which is the result of his devotion to research and experience gain during his travels abroad. The author confesses that these subjects have been of great personal interest to him, although his favorite reading material has been spy and espionage thrillers since he was a young child. He states the reason for his great interest in books with such exciting themes is the level of boredom from which he suffered in the small Californian town where he grew up. Such novels were an escape to the adventurous life, something he is now responsible for bringing to millions of others around the world.

A Look Inside the Books of Daniel Silva:

In 2007, Silva was honored with the Barry Award for his work, The Messenger, which was published in 2006. It is the sixth book in the author’s Gabriel Allon Series, which started off in 2000 with a book titled, The Kill Artist. In this fantastic spy novel, a man named Ari Shamron is reinstated to the position of director by the Prime Minister of Israel. Not long afterwards, the nation’s ambassador gets killed in Paris. The crime is considered signature of terrorist mastermind, Tariq al-Hourani. There was a man named Gabriel Allon, for whom the series is named. This man serves as leader to a team that takes out the operatives during the Munich Massacre. Those operatives happened to be family of Tariq. Subsequently, Tariq takes vengeance on Gabriel killing his family with a car bomb. Gabriel was a witness to the horrific event. His son instantly died and his wife, Leah, was left with a broken body and traumatized mind. Fast forward years after this very sad event and Ari Shamron appears at Gabriel’s door. Shamron requests Gabriel’s assistance in assassinating their shared enemy, Tariq, an offer which Gabriel accepts and starts off with a surveillance operation focused on Yusef, one of the members of Tariq’s organization. However, the task proves not to be a simple one. Gabriel solicits the assistance of French supermodel, Jacqueline Delacroix, who has worked on other such operations, even having an affair with Gabriel at one point, the very event that caused his wife to insist on accompanying him on his trip to Vienna, which lead to her tragic and untimely death. Jacqueline works to seduce Yusef and is successful, but gets caught imprinting his keys, blowing her cover.

Clearly Gabriel Allon survives the sticky situations suffered in The Kill Artist, as the series continues on through several other books. The novel for which Silva won an award, The Messenger, starts off when information recovered from a laptop once belonging to a terrorist mastermind makes Gabriel suspect an upcoming assassination attempt on the Pope. Gabriel calls up, Luigi Donati, one of his friends who also happens to serve as personal secretary of the Pope. Although Gabriel warns that security around the Pope should be tightened, his message goes unheeded. During an outdoor ceremony that Gabriel has suggested should be moved to an indoor location, the deaths of over 700 worshipers occurs thanks to three suicide bombers. Terrorists attempt to kill the Pope by shooting missiles at his location, but Gabriel manages to rescue him in time. Research by the Vatican following the deadly event reveals that the very council which was established with the goal of improving relations between Catholics and Muslims was actually serving as an operation for insider terrorism. Blame of the disastrous happenings at the worship ceremony is placed on a powerful network of terrorists. Their response is to bomb Ari Shamron’s car, a character that has served as Gabriel’s friend since the beginning of the series. Shamron gets severely injured by the bomb, but is not killed. Instead, he is left to fight for his life. This inspires Gabriel to join forces with a CIA member in an effort to infiltrate a terrorist financier who has ties to both the murder attempt on the Pope and Shamron.

Daniel Silva Stories on the Silver Screen:

In 2011, Universal Pictures purchased rights to transform Silva’s Gabriel Allon saga into a film. However, no further action has been taken towards the goal.

Master of the standalone thriller genre, Shari Lapena, is back. Author of The Couple Next Door and A Stranger in the House, An Unwanted Guest is the latest novel by Shari. It takes place in a cozy mountain lodge in Winter where various people are staying for a romantic getaway. A blizzard cuts off the power and any contact with the outside world so everyone settles in for the long haul. Then a guest dies. And another. Knowing Shari's other books, this should be one we'll be reading late into the night. For more details or to pre-order, visit our Shari Lapena page.

Recommendations

Every 2 weeks we send out an e-mail with 6-8 Book Recommendations. We'll base this on various factors for example "If you like Jack Reacher..." or "If you like short stories in the horror genre". Insert your e-mail below to start getting these recommendations.

MISSING A BOOK?

I do my best to make sure the book lists are complete and current, but due to human or machine error while attempting to keep 3000+ authors up to date, the occasional book can be missed or will be listed under an alternate title. If you see one missing just send me an e-mail below. Thanks!

Author / Series

Book(s)

Featured Series

Our book series of the month is the Will Robie Series by David Baldacci. If you like Mitch Rapp, Jack Reacher, Jason Bourne etc then you'll love the Will Robie series. These are page turners to the max too and Baldacci knows how to keep you going all night long!

Featured Author

Bill Wenham is the author of various book series including The Inspector Charrington Mysteries and the Inspector Bruce Mysteries. He just started writing in his 80s to follow a life long dream. It’s an amazing story and the books he has written are pretty great too – his passion really shines through. Read more about Bills books.

Did You Know…

After graduating from Leesville Road High School in Raleigh in 1999, Andrew Britton joined the U.S. Army as a combat engineer. He stayed in the Army for three years and served in Korea.